one of the complex mountain chains that form the Kunlun Mountains in western China. The Arkatag range is in the east-central portion of the Kunluns. Mount Muztag (Muztagh), at its western end, reaches an elevation of 25,338 feet (7,723 metres) and is the tallest peak in both the Arkatag and the Kunlun ranges; Bukadaban Peak, at the eastern end, is 22,507 feet ...

(subspecies Equus caballus przewalskii or E. ferus przewalskii), last wild horse subspecies surviving in the 21st century. It was discovered in western Mongolia in the late 1870s by the Russian explorer N.M. Przhevalsky....

...in the west and east, respectively, had replaced the area’s earlier Germanic inhabitants. In 1160, under Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, Christianity and German domination were introduced. Przybysław (Přibislav), son of the vanquished Obodrite ruler Niklot, became Henry’s vassal and founded the Mecklenburg dynasty. In a series of partitions, four separate lines were......

a hard, stiff, brilliantly transparent synthetic resin produced by the polymerization of styrene. It is widely employed in the food-service industry as rigid trays and containers, disposable eating utensils, and foamed cups, plates, and bowls. Polystyrene is also copolymerized, or blended with other polymers, lending hardn...

Under Diouf the Socialist Party (PS) maintained Senghor’s alliance with the Muslim hierarchies. When the PS secured more than 80 percent of the votes in the 1983 elections, there were complaints of unfair practice, and the eight deputies returned by the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) of Abdoulaye Wade initially refused to take their seats. Nevertheless, the framework of parliamentary......

toxic organic compound used alone or in combination with methyl bromide as a soil fumigant and fungicide. Chloropicrin has a boiling point of 112 °C (234 °F). Its vapours are irritating to the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract, and it has been used in chemical warfare and as a tear gas. Chloropicri...

video game console released in 1994 by Sony Computer Entertainment. The PlayStation, one of a new generation of 32-bit consoles, signaled Sony’s rise to power in the video game world. Also known as the PS One, the PlayStation used compact discs (CDs), heralding the video game industry’s move away from cartridges....

...games cost about $60 each—and a lack of new must-have games. As a result, Nintendo dropped the price of its Wii game console by $50, to $199, Sony reduced the price of its most-expensive PlayStation 3 model by $100, to $399, and Microsoft cut the price of its most-expensive Xbox 360 model by $100, to $299....

Pressure-sensitive adhesives, or PSAs, represent a large industrial and commercial market in the form of adhesive tapes and films directed toward packaging, mounting and fastening, masking, and electrical and surgical applications. PSAs are capable of holding adherends together when the surfaces are mated under briefly applied pressure at room temperature. (The difference between these......

The question whether men should have an annual blood test that measures prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate gland, had long been controversial. Generally, the higher a man’s PSA level was, the more likely it was that he had prostate cancer, and the test was widely used to screen men over age 50 for prostate cancer. The majority of tumours discovered by PSA tests......

major French automotive manufacturer and holding company, incorporated in France in 1896 as Société Anonyme des Automobiles Peugeot. The company merged with another large French automobile producer, Citroën SA, in 1976, the combination assuming the current name. Headquarters are in Paris....

Bethe served on numerous advisory committees to the United States government, including the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). As a member of PSAC, he helped persuade President Dwight D. Eisenhower to commit the United States to ban atmospheric nuclear tests. (The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, which banned atmospheric nuclear testing, was finally ratified in 1963.) In 1972 Bethe’s cogent......

Malta’s national poet, sometimes called “the bard of Malta,” or “the Chaucer of Malta.” His work has both romantic and classical affinities. His love of nature and his motherland together with his religious sensibility exemplify the former; his fondness for traditional metre (notably in his sonnets, which are considered particularly fine) exemplifies the latter....

An important cotton pest is the cotton fleahopper (Psallus seriatus). The oval-shaped adult is about 3 mm long and pale green in colour, with four black spots on its body. It passes the winter in the egg stage in the plant tissues of weeds. In the spring after the eggs hatch, the nymphs eat the weeds; they then migrate to nearby cotton fields to feed on the cotton plant. Later, the......

melodic recitation formula used in the singing of the psalms and canticles of the Bible, followed by the “Gloria Patri” (“Glory Be to the Father”) during the chanting of the liturgical hours, or divine office. In the Gregorian chant repertory there are eight psalm tones. Because each psalm verse is divided into two halves, the psalm tones have a binary, or two-part, form. The f...

Among the forgers who have tried to make the experts look foolish is George Psalmanazar (1679?–1763). A Frenchman, he went to England where he pretended, with great success, to be a native of Formosa (Taiwan), and published a book about that island, which he had never visited. Another is William Lauder, who attempted to prove John Milton guilty of plagiarism by quoting 17th-century poets......

...the motivation for the psalms and in the practice of worship in ancient Israel. He wrote Psalmenstudien, 6 vol. (1921–24; “Studies in the Psalms,” later popularized as The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1962), one of the major works of biblical commentary of the 20th century. Depicting the psalms in their concrete cultural milieu, he emphasized the cultic nature......

...ennobled within the first years of James’s reign: Henry Howard, earl of Northampton, and John Petre, 1st Baron Petre, another close friend of Byrd’s. One further publication came from Byrd, the Psalmes, Songs and Sonnets of 1611, containing English sacred and secular music....

...(Italian choral pieces) and chansons, he published seven collections of lieder (German part-songs). Probably his best known work is his sombre, impressive collection of penitential psalms, Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales (1584). Its rediscovery and edition in 1838 by S.W. Dehn initiated a revival of interest in Lasso’s works....

...historian for King John III Sobieski and was present at Sobieski’s victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683. Kochowski developed a deep sense of patriotism, which he best expressed in his epic Psalmodia polska (1695; “Polish Psalmody”). The major theme of the 36 psalms of the Psalmodia is Poland’s messianic role in the salvation of the world. Although of......

singing of psalms in worship. In biblical times professional singers chanted psalms during Jewish religious services. Occasionally, the congregation interpolated a short refrain between the chanted verses. The alternation of soloist and chorus was called responsorial psalmody (see responsory). Another method, antiphonal psalmody, was the alternation by...

book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalms begins the third and last section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings (Hebrew Ketuvim)....

...the motivation for the psalms and in the practice of worship in ancient Israel. He wrote Psalmenstudien, 6 vol. (1921–24; “Studies in the Psalms,” later popularized as The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, 1962), one of the major works of biblical commentary of the 20th century. Depicting the psalms in their concrete cultural milieu, he emphasized the cultic nature......

a pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) comprising 18 psalms that were originally written in Hebrew, although only Greek and Syriac translations survive. Like the canonical Psalms, the Psalms of Solomon contains hymns, poems of admonition and instruction, and songs of thanksgiving and lamentation. Some of these psalms also contain technical musical notations suggesting that they ...

The poems in Salmos (1964; The Psalms of Struggle and Liberation) represent Cardenal’s rewriting of the biblical psalms of David and condemn modern-day evils. These poems, like many of his others, express the tension between his revolutionary political fervour and his religious faith. The book culminates in an apocalyptic view of the world, a theme that becomes an obsession in......

The death of Tallis in 1585 may have prompted Byrd to set his musical house in order, for in the next three years he published four collections of his own music: Psalmes, Sonets, & Songs of Sadnes and Pietie (1588), Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589), and two further books of Cantiones sacrae (1589 and 1591). The two secular volumes were dedicated, respectively, to Sir......

book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung. In the Hebrew Bible, Psalms begins the third and last section of the biblical canon, known as the Writings (Hebrew Ketuvim)....

...early verse was of an official nature, but that of the church was hardly more lively than that of the fili, who often affected a deliberately obscure style. More interesting was the 10th-century Psalter, a biblical history in 150 poems. But the real glory of Irish verse lay in anonymous poets who composed poems such as the famous address to Pangur, a white cat. They avoided complicated.....

In the most advanced ruminants, the much enlarged stomach consists of four parts. These include the large rumen (or paunch), the reticulum, the omasum (psalterium or manyplies)—which are all believed to be derived from the esophagus—and the abomasum (or reed), which corresponds to the stomach of other mammals. The omasum is almost absent in chevrotains. Camels have a three-chambered......

...of the Apocalypse”), Joachim seeks to probe the imminent crisis of evil, as pictured in the apocalyptic symbols of Antichrist, and the life of the spirit to follow. His third main work, the Psalterium decem chordarum (“Psaltery of Ten Strings”), expounds his doctrine of the Trinity through the symbol of his vision of the 10-stringed psaltery. Here and in a lost tract he......

...tradition attendant upon the Norman invasion, arrested for a while the movement toward the production of the English Bible. Within about 50 years (c. 1120) of the Conquest, Eadwine’s Psalterium triplex, which contained the Latin version accompanied by Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon renderings, appeared. The contemporary Oxford Psalter achieved such influence that it became the......

(from Greek psaltērion: “harp”), musical instrument having plucked strings of gut, horsehair, or metal stretched across a flat soundboard, often trapezoidal but also rectangular, triangular, or wing-shaped. The strings are open, none being stopped to produce different notes. The instrument, probably of Middle Eastern origin in late Classical times, reached Eur...

...without musical notation, for several centuries. The earliest manuscripts with decipherable music are believed to date from the 13th century. Manuscripts containing soloists’ sections are called psaltika (from psaltēs, “church singer”). Choral parts are preserved in asmatika (from asma, “song”). The musical settings tend to be......

...tit (Aegithalos caudatus) of Eurasia. It is pinkish and black, with white head, and its tail makes up half of its 14-centimetre (6-inch) total length. One of the world’s tiniest birds is the pygmy tit (Psaltria exilis) of Java, with head and body length of 7 cm....

gray bird of western North America, belonging to the songbird family Aegithalidae (order Passeriformes). The common bushtit is 11 cm (4.5 inches) long and ranges from British Columbia to Guatemala. This tiny, drab bird is common in oak scrub, chaparral, piñon, and juniper woodlands, as well as in wooded ...

genus of two species of sand-binding plants in the grass family (Poaceae). American beach grass (Ammophila breviligulata) grows along the Atlantic coast and in the Great Lakes region of North America. European beach grass (A. arenaria) is native to temperate coasts in Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia and has been introduced in many place...

...enough to be used for writing. Lytechinus variegatus, a pale-greenish urchin of the southeastern coast of the United States and the Caribbean, and the large, short-spined Psammechinus (sometimes Echinus) miliaris of Iceland, Europe, and western Africa use their tube feet to hold up bits of seaweed or shell as a shield against sunlight in shallow......

governor, later king (reigned 664–610 bce) of ancient Egypt, who expelled the Assyrians from Egypt and reunited the country, founding its 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce])....

governor, later king (reigned 664–610 bce) of ancient Egypt, who expelled the Assyrians from Egypt and reunited the country, founding its 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce])....

king (reigned 595–589 bce) of the 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce]) of ancient Egypt, who conducted an important expedition against the kingdom of Kush, Egypt’s southern neighbour (see Nubia)...

last king (reigned 526–525 bce) of the 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce]) of ancient Egypt, who failed to block the Persian invasion of 525 and was later executed for treason....

any insect of the family Pompilidae, also known as Psammocharidae (order Hymenoptera). They are distributed throughout most of the world. About 40 species occur in Great Britain, and more than 100 species are found in North America. Although they feed on spiders helpful to humans, the wasps are not regarded as economically destructive....

...2 long palpi arising from the ventral surface at the junction of the prostomium and next segment; capillary and hooded hooks; single genus, Magelona.Order PsammodrilidaProstomium and peristome lack appendages; parapodia in mid-region long and supported by aciculae; minute; 2 genera, Psammodrilus and......

...PsammodrilidaProstomium and peristome lack appendages; parapodia in mid-region long and supported by aciculae; minute; 2 genera, Psammodrilus and Psammodriloides, each with a single species.Order CtenodrilidaNo prostomial appendages; no parapodial lobes; setae arise direct...

...PsammodrilidaProstomium and peristome lack appendages; parapodia in mid-region long and supported by aciculae; minute; 2 genera, Psammodrilus and Psammodriloides, each with a single species.Order CtenodrilidaNo prostomial appendages; no parapodial lobes;......

...Plankton); the shoreline macrophytes; the benthos (bottom-dwelling organisms); the nekton (free-swimming forms in the water column); the periphyton (microscopic biota on submerged objects); the psammon (biota buried in sediments); and the neuston (biota associated with surface film). These organisms differ enormously in size, ranging from less than 0.5 micrometre (0.00002 inch) to greater......

governor, later king (reigned 664–610 bce) of ancient Egypt, who expelled the Assyrians from Egypt and reunited the country, founding its 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce])....

king (reigned 595–589 bce) of the 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce]) of ancient Egypt, who conducted an important expedition against the kingdom of Kush, Egypt’s southern neighbour (see Nubia)...

last king (reigned 526–525 bce) of the 26th dynasty (664–525 bce; see ancient Egypt: The Late period [664–332 bce]) of ancient Egypt, who failed to block the Persian invasion of 525 and was later executed for treason....

Greek lyric poet greatly admired in all ages for the beauty of her writing style. She ranks with Archilochus and Alcaeus, among Greek poets, for her ability to impress readers with a lively sense of her personality. Her language contains elements from Aeolic vernacular speech and Aeolic poetic tradition, with traces of epic vocabulary famili...

...or blue; most African types are brownish or grayish, marked with reddish hues or black. Typical of the main group of broadbills, which are sociable and noisy insect eaters, is the 25-cm (10-inch) long-tailed broadbill (Psarisomus dalhousiae), which ranges from the Himalayas to Borneo. It has a green body, black-and-yellow head, and a graduated blue tail. A minor group of quiet,......

any of several bird species of the blackbird family (Icteridae) that are common to the canopy of New World tropical forests and known (along with the caciques) for their hanging nests, which may measure up to 2 metres (6.6 feet) long....

The genus of extinct ferns Psaronius, from Carboniferous and Permian times (roughly 360 to 250 million years ago), is considered to be either a member of the Marattiaceae or very closely related to it. The Marattiaceae generally are considered to be one of the most primitive extant families of ferns....

...that chlorine and bromine chemistry were indeed responsible for the ozone hole, but for another reason: the hole appeared to be the product of chemical reactions occurring on particles that make up polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) in the lower stratosphere....

Portugal faced another grueling year of economic austerity in 2013 as its government, led by Social Democratic Party (PSD) Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, continued efforts to meet the obligations set out by the troika of international lenders—the European Central Bank, the IMF, and the European Commission—in the bailout package signed in 2011. The year had started well, with......

...his depth in national politics. Iohannis’s Lutheran faith and his membership in the country’s small German minority were also held against him. It was believed that victory for Ponta and the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) was assured. What was seen as an outright bid for domination by these heirs of the post-1989 communist party faced unexpected obstacles, however....

...of political inactivity followed until the 1950s. After the Overseas Territories Law of 1956 gave Madagascar an executive elected by the local assembly, Vice-Premier Philibert Tsiranana founded the Social Democratic Party (Parti Social Démocrate; PSD), which, though most of its members were non-Merina from the coastal areas, offered to cooperate with the Merina. In 1958 France agreed to......

...even when the user is unaware of the underlying mathematics. Attaining this level of user transparency requires reliable, efficient, and accurate numerical analysis software, and it requires problem-solving environments (PSE) in which it is relatively easy to model a given situation. PSEs are usually based on excellent theoretical mathematical models, made available to the user through a......

Pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat is the result of a rapid postmortem pH decline while the muscle temperature is too high. This combination of low pH and high temperature adversely affects muscle proteins, reducing their ability to hold water (the meat drips and is soft and mushy) and causing them to reflect light from the surface of the meat (the meat appears pale). PSE meat is especially......

...genus (Lutrochus); found near streams; distribution limited to New World.Family Psephenidae (water-penny beetles)Larvae flat, almost circular; a few species, mostly in India, North America.Family......

...already drawn a distinction between the constitution (politeia), the laws (nomoi), and something more ephemeral that corresponds to what could be described as day-to-day policies (psēphismata). The latter might be based upon the votes cast by the citizens in their assembly and might be subject to frequent changes, but nomoi, or laws, were meant to last longer.......

The evolution of mathematics in Byzantium, and subsequently in Europe, was stimulated by Planudes’ Psephophoria kat’ Indous (“Arithmetic According to the Indians” [i.e., Arabs]). Influenced by the Baghdad school, he encouraged the use of Arabic numerical notation, including the sign for zero, and introduced other mathematical operations (e.g., the extraction of......

Research published in September reported that a three-year search for the giant Chinese paddlefish (Psephurus gladius) failed to sight a single individual while conducting surveys over 300 mi (about 489 km). The IUCN classified the species, endemic to China’s Yangtze River system, as Critically Endangered, and the last confirmed sighting occurred in 2003. Individuals born in the late......

(Psetta maxima), broad-bodied European flatfish of the family Scophthalmidae. A highly valued food fish, the turbot lives along sand and gravel shores. It is a left-sided flatfish, with its eyes normally on the left side of the head, and it is scaleless, though its head and body are studded with numerous bony knobs, or tubercles. It reaches a maximum length of 1 metre (40 inches) and weight...

...to cleithrum. Swim bladder absent in adults. Fossil records for this group of fish are limited, extending from Paleocene to the present, about 65 million years.Suborder PsettodoideiThe least-specialized (most primitive) flatfish. Spines present in dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins; dorsal fin not extending onto head; eyes on either right....

(Pseudacris), any of several species of tree frogs belonging to the family Hylidae. Chorus frogs are found in North America from Canada to the southern United States and the northern reaches of Mexico. They are predominantly terrestrial and live in thick herbaceous vegetation and low shrubbery. They are not as adept at climbing as are most other hylids....

(species Pseudacris crucifer), small tree frog (family Hylidae) found in woodland areas in the eastern United States and Canada. Outside of the breeding season, when it may be found in ephemeral woodland ponds, it is seldom seen....

...whose range extends across Asia and into Japan, the gray tree frog (H. versicolor), the green frog (H. cinerea), and the Pacific tree frog (H. regilla). The smallest is the little grass frog (Pseudacris, or Limnoaedus, ocularis), which does not exceed 1.75 cm (0.69 inch) in length and is found in cypress swamps in the United States from Virginia to......

...commonly found on flowers and either on the ground or hovering above it in search of prey. The nest, or cell, is made in soil, on rotten wood, or among rocks. Species of the North American genus Pseudagenia construct cells of mud under bark or among stones. Some species construct the nest before capturing the spider; others capture the spider first, then set it aside until the nest is......

The subfamily Mapanioideae has a pseudanthium, or false flower, composed of a single terminal female flower surrounded by a number of naked stamens, each of which is subtended by a bract with the lowest two stamens situated opposite each other. In the genus Hypolytrum, only the two opposite stamens and their subtending bracts are present beneath the female flower. The pseudanthium is......

Four lost works in geometry are described in Greek sources and attributed to Euclid. The purpose of the Pseudaria (“Fallacies”), says Proclus, was to distinguish and to warn beginners against different types of fallacies to which they might be susceptible in geometrical reasoning. According to Pappus, the Porisms......

Nonunion results in a false joint—pseudarthrosis—characterized by pain and motion at the fracture site. Healing may be achieved by immobilization with or without internal fixation and by transplantation of bone to bridge the defect....

any of about a dozen species of snakes that are all black or nearly so. Australia has two species of black snakes, Pseudechis porphyriacus and P. guttatus. P. porphyriacus is a small-headed member of the cobra family, Elapidae. It is blue-black with a red belly, and its average length is about 1.5 metres (5 feet). If annoyed, it expands its neck,......

...experiments involving the turtle’s sensitivity to sounds have used training methods (conditioned responses); only a few have met with success. It has been found that turtles of the species Pseudemys scripta, trained to withdraw their head, respond to sound over the low-frequency range, with the greatest sensitivity in the region of 200 to 640 hertz. This result is in close......

...processes during embryonic development. Occasionally, malformed persons are found in which a part of the brain protrudes through the cranium as an encephalocoele. An extreme variant of this type is pseudencephaly, in which the whole brain is everted and rests upon the top of the cranium like a wig....

...is responsible for the widespread destruction termites can cause. In some primitive termite families a true worker caste is absent, and its functions are carried out by immature individuals called pseudo-workers or pseudergates, which may molt without much change in size....

the name given to the author of a commentary on St. Paul’s letters in the New Testament, long attributed to St. Ambrose (died 397), bishop of Milan. The work is valuable for the criticism of the Latin text of the New Testament....

...(“he does not rule who does not correct”). Those definitions formed the basis for most medieval thinking about kingship. A widely copied treatise on virtues and vices by the so-called Pseudo-Cyprianus, an otherwise unknown Irish writer, established a clear link between moral and political authority and explained how the personal moral shortcomings of individual rulers influenced......

any of three different pretenders to the Muscovite throne who, during the Time of Troubles (1598–1613), claimed to be Dmitry Ivanovich, the son of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (reigned 1533–84) who had died mysteriously in 1591 while still a child....

probably a Syrian monk who, known only by his pseudonym, wrote a series of Greek treatises and letters for the purpose of uniting Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian theology and mystical experience. These writings established a definite Neoplatonic trend in a large segment of medieval Christian doctrine and spirituality—especially in the Western Latin Church—that has determin...

probably a Syrian monk who, known only by his pseudonym, wrote a series of Greek treatises and letters for the purpose of uniting Neoplatonic philosophy with Christian theology and mystical experience. These writings established a definite Neoplatonic trend in a large segment of medieval Christian doctrine and spirituality—especially in the Western Latin Church—that has determin...